OPEC says electric-based cars will control very little of the market by 2040

OPEC believes 94% of vehicles on the road will still be fuel guzzling beasts in 2040.

The agency released its annual World Oil Outlook this week in which it said: “Without a technology breakthrough, battery electric vehicles are not expected to gain significant market share in the foreseeable future.”

OPEC says only 1% of vehicles will be battery-powered by 2040.

OPEC says there will be very little demand for other alternative-energy vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel and natural gas because of hight costs and a lack of refueling stations.

OPEC is made up of major oil producing nations that depending on large amounts of oil consumption to sustain their economies, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they would release a cheery report on the state of their own economic conditions 25 years into the future.

OPEC counts hybrid electric cars as oil-powered, because most of them run on gasoline. It says hybrids will capture 14% market share by 2040.

In 2015 electric cars and hybrids made up 3.3% of car sales in the United States. In Western European nations, sales of electric, hybrid and alternative energy vehicles hit 4.4% of total car sales.

OPEC admits that vehicles will become more fuel efficient, but the agency also predicts that the number of vehicles on the road will more than double over the next 25 years.

The agency believes oil demand will increase by 17% when 2040 rolls around.

John Howard is the Business Editor at BusinessPundit.com. He is an avid watcher of markets, a wallflower of retail, and a fan of disruptive businesses that utilize technology and unique ideas to form brilliant new ways of doing business. He can be reached at Student Loan Ninja